Happy April Fools Day, Inspector Fox!
by Chanting Fox
Summary: Just another typical heist by the Cooper Gang, right? Well, the answer to that is yes... and no. What do I mean by that? You'll have to read and see... (safety rating)
1. A Worthy Challenge

"...And that's the latest in the local news. When we come back, your traffic, weather and sports news." "BORING!" This came from all three members of the Cooper Gang, who hadn't found anything worthy of their attentions in a while. To make matters worse, the last time they'd pulled a heist had been a month ago, and the security systems that were supposed to pose a challenge to the gang turned out to be offline, courtesy of an guard who'd tripped and broken a control panel. Now normally this wouldn't have knocked out all the security... except when the guard tripped, he had tipped over a can of soda which spilled onto and into the broken control panel, shorting out all the security.

Murray picked up the remote and started to flip through the channels... then stopped and flipped back a few channels. "Hey, isn't that Inspector Fox?" Sure enough, it was the lovely and hot-tempered Inspector Carmelita Fox on the TV screen. She was being interviewed by a reporter, who had just made the mistake of asking her about the specifics of the security around something... "Do you think I'm stupid? I'm not going to divulge that kind of information! The Cat's Eye is worth a fortune, and I'm not going to let anybody steal it on my watch ... much less help anybody who thinks that they can do that by giving away the specifics of the security around it!" 

"I don't understand... Carmelita said something about a watch, but she's not wearing one." This came from Murray, who was promptly corrected by Bentley. "It's an expression, Murray. She's saying that as long as she has the job of keeping the Cat's Eye safe that nobody is going to be able to steal it. Sounds like a challenge worthy of the skills of the Cooper Gang, doesn't it?" "It certainly does, pal. It certainly does... I'm looking forward to messing with Carmelita's head again." Bentley and Murray both thought: "Oh no... here we go AGAIN." So what exactly is the Cat's Eye? The name is derived from the fact that it was the largest emerald in the world with that particular property. The term refers to the refractive properties of the gem, which are characteristic of the various incarnations of the mineral beryl, especially aquamarine. If you're confused by this statement, don't feel stupid; it didn't make any sense to Sly or Murray either... and they didn't get the short version. "Uh, Bentley... could you repeat that again? This time in ENGLISH?" This came from Sly, who quite obviously had no clue what Bentley was saying. "My head hurts..." This came from Murray, who had understood even less then Sly had. Bentley sighed, and started again, this time in terms that could be understood by his friends. "The term "refractive properties" refers to the way the Cat's Eye affects the light that hits it. The beams of light are bent upon contact with the gem, producing the visual effect that it derives its name from. Namely, looking at it produces the illusion that you're looking into the eye of a cat. Beryl is..." "Bentley... that's all I really need to know, and besides we should start getting some information about the "security" around the Cat's Eye."

The next day, the gang set out for New York City, where the Cat's Eye was on display. There were two problems though: Sly couldn't figure out how he was going to mess with Carmelita in a way that he hadn't done previously, and Bentley was having trouble obtaining any info on the security around the Cat's Eye. "Looks like Inspector Fox has gotten smart... there's absolutely no info about the security around the Cat's Eye in the Interpol mainframe." "What about whoever's putting up the dough for the event?" "Unfortunately, that person happens to have quite a bit of knowledge when it comes to computers... and combined with the fact that Inspector Fox is going to be guarding the Cat's Eye, the probability that he's heard about my hacking skills is very high." "You're not saying you can't hack his computer system, are you? That doesn't sound like you Bentley." "Oh I'm pretty sure I can hack it, Sly. The problem is he's probably going to have his people monitoring his computer system for any sign of unauthorized access." "In other words, there's a good chance we'll lose the element of surprise if you do hack into his system. That's one risk I'm NOT willing to take." 

Three hours later, Sly and his pals were in New York City... with only a week before the Cat's Eye would no longer be on display to the public... and thus impossible for Sly and the gang to steal. Why would that be the case? It just so happens that the Cat's Eye had spent about a decade in the vault of a bank... a bank in Switzerland. There's a difference between being daring and being suicidal... and by all accounts, attempting to steal the Cat's Eye from that vault would be the latter. When Sly asked how tough the security was, Murray fainted of fright before Bentley had gotten halfway through the description of how bad it was, and by the end, Sly rated his chances of successfully stealing the Cat's Eye once it was back in that vault as somewhere around the chances of him walking into the lunchroom of a police station during lunchtime without wearing a disguise and not being captured. This was truly going to be a challenge worthy of the skills of the Cooper Gang... and to make matters worse, Sly still couldn't figure out any new ways to mess with Carmelita's head this time around! 

Sly thought to himself: "I'd better come up with something... otherwise this heist is going to be about as fun as getting hit by a shot from Carmelita's shock pistol!" There weren't too many things that Sly could imagine as being less fun than that... except maybe the time that he'd spent as a "guest" of the Contessa. Well, sitting around in the safehouse wasn't going to get anything accomplished, so it was time to get to work. "Bentley, I'm headed out for some recon work. It's time to get this party started." "I didn't know we were going to have a party! Where's the cake and ice cream?" "It's an expression, Murray. It's an EXPRESSION." 


	2. Make Something Foolproof

"Of all the stupid, boneheaded, witless..." For the third time since the day had begun, Inspector Carmelita was mercilessly berating one of the security guards. The first guard she'd berated had shown up at the museum that morning so drunk that he'd walked straight into a ladder that was being used by a technician who was in the process of fixing a broken security camera, and of course had knocked the ladder over. The technician was miraculously uninjured, but the camera was damaged by the tool the technician had been using at that moment, and was now beyond repair. The second guard had been found asleep at his post, and the reason why he had been berated should be quite obvious.However, this guard had done something that topped the other two guards when it came to the "stupidity" department. THIS guard had tripped one of the security systems while that system was in the process of being calibrated. As a result, the whole process of bringing that particular security system online had to be started all over again... and the technicians who were responsible for that process had left a few minutes ago. 

So why was the Inspector berating the guard instead of getting the technicians to come back and work on that security system? Well... the reason was that she couldn't do that without breaking the law. Yes, that's right... she couldn't order them to return to work because of the fact they belonged to a labor union! Now Carmelita didn't have anything against labor unions... it's just that one of the rules in regard to the members of the labor union was that once union members went off-duty, they couldn't be forced to come back for another 12 hours. Making matters even worse, the Cat's Eye was supposed to be available for public viewing in less than 2 hours! 

"If you do something like this again..." Carmelita abruptly broke off from her tongue-lashing of the guard and stalked away down the nearest corridor."Could anything else possibly go wrong?" As Carmelita thought this to herself, steel bars suddenly crashed down behind her and directly in front of her. Yes, something else could and HAD gone wrong... like some IDIOT turning on a security system that was only supposed to be active during the nighttime! Carmelita thought to herself: "When I find out who the idiot who turned this security system on is, they better hope they've got a good health insurance plan... and perhaps a written last will and testament..." 

Sly was on the second floor of the museum at that very moment, and snapped a picture of the Inspector and the security system from the with the Mini-Cam through a ventilation duct. The Mini-Cam was a gadget that Bentley had thought up and created after he'd looked over a map of the museum on the Internet, which he had combined with information on the layout of the museum that had been obtained from other sources. When put together, the information had shown that attempting to get recon photos the same way Sly had when the Cooper Gang had gone after the Klaww Gang would end up accomplishing only one thing: a one-way trip to the nearest jail cell. In other words, Sly wouldn't have been able to get close enough to take photos with the Binocu-Com without being spotted by somebody. 

As such, Bentley had created the Mini-Cam, a miniature camera which had a wireless connection to the Binocu-Com, and also upgraded the Binocu-Com so it could both receive pictures from the Mini-Cam and be used to send instructions to the Mini-Cam. Still, there were a few downsides to the Mini-Cam... like the fact that it didn't give Sly the same thrill as taking recon photos with the Binocu-Com did. There's not too much of a challenge when the only thing you're risking isn't yourself. At least that's what Sly's opinion was... Bentley had the opposite opinion when it came to that matter. 

"That's definitely one for the scrapbook... perhaps I'll send a duplicate of it to the Inspector after this job is over." "Sly, you said you were going out to do some RECON... not to take pictures of Inspector Fox." "Lighten up, Bentley... besides that's another piece of security we know about now." "True... but we don't know anything about the security directly around the Cat's Eye, and from the looks of it, that particular system wasn't supposed to be active right now! That means there could be other security systems that we won't be able to detect currently. I'd suggest that we don't attempt to pull off the heist tonight. We'll need to spend tonight finding out about the other security systems that aren't active during the daytime." "No argument here. It's funny to see Inspector Carmelita behind bars, but I don't fancy the same happening to me." "Especially considering that your stay behind bars would be a lot longer." With that, the conversation between the two ended.

Sly was about to use the Binocu-Com to retrieve the Mini-Cam when he saw that a security guard had just noticed the Inspector... and apparently was telling her something. A moment later, Carmelita ended up hitting the roof... figuratively speaking. That combined with the fact that the guard left very quickly a few moments later, it was quite obvious that the guard had no idea how to deactivate the security system. The expression on her face was too good for Sly to pass up... so he snapped a few more photos of the Inspector before he retrieved the Mini-Cam. "Now THOSE are definitely ones for the scrapbook... my personal scrapbook." What Sly meant by that isn't really that important compared to the fact that Sly now had a good idea of how he was going to mess with Carmelita's head this time... but that photo of her behind those security bars wasn't enough by itself. "Leaving a duplicate of that photo on her desk would be an easy way to mess with her... but I've already used that trick quite a few times before. Might as well get back to the safe house so Bentley can brief me on whatever he's come up with so far." 


	3. Dumb Luck

When Sly got back to the safe house, he assumed that Bentley would go over the plans for the recon mission that night. However, Bentley had something else on his mind... "Sly, where have you been? We've got a problem... I can't find Murray anywhere!" "Chill out, Bentley... he probably just went to get something to eat. You know how he is when it comes to food." "Yes... but he always tells us whenever he does that... but he didn't say anything to me! In fact, I didn't even see him leave the safe house! "OK... now THAT'S a problem." 

Unfortunately, Sly couldn't risk leaving to look for Murray now... the people of New York City were up and about now, and while there was a good chance that an officer would have taken a glance at Murray and just continued on their way, Sly wouldn't be able to count on that happening if an officer spotted him. Besides, the only danger would be if Inspector Carmelita happened to spot Murray... and considering that she was assigned to managing the security around the Cat's Eye, that was a virtual impossibility. After, Murray wouldn't be foolish enough to go to the museum. However, Sly had no idea how wrong he was on that last point.

Inspector Carmelita was looking at the TV monitors that were linked to the security cameras around the museum. She was still a bit annoyed about that mishap with that security system, and it didn't help her temper any that one of the monitors was off, a constant reminder of the camera that had been damaged thanks to that drunk guard. "I could be out searching for the Cooper Gang right now. Instead I'm stuck monitoring security cameras, having to put up with imcompetent guards and security systems that are active when they shouldn't be!" Carmelita shifted her glance from the screen she was currently looking at to another screen, which was connected to a security camera which overlooked part of the long line of people who had come to view the Cat's Eye. "This is really boring... huh? Oh, this is great, just great... I'm so bored that I'm starting to see things! My eyes are telling me that Cooper's hippo friend is in line to view the Cat's Eye! I can't wait until this job is finally over with..." 

However, the Inspector WASN'T seeing things... yes, Murray was actually in the line at that very moment. "This is great... I'll actually get a good look at the Cat's Eye, and I won't have to worry about getting caught!" Of course, while Murray isn't as smart as Bentley or Sly, Murray wasn't dumb enough to say that out loud. He didn't have any intention of stealing the Cat's Eye either... just getting a look at it and then getting some lunch at the museum cafeteria. Needless to say, he accomplished his "mission" successfully, and headed back to the safe house. "The guys are really going to be surprised by THIS!" The real surprise was that Murray had no idea how incredibly stupid his actions were, and how lucky he had been that he hadn't blown the Cooper Gang's cover!

Bentley was absolutely speechless when Murray returned and told him and Sly what he'd done "I can't believe this... it defies not just mere logic, but common sense as well!" That was what Bentley was thinking to himself at the moment. On the other hand, Sly completely lost it and pulled a "Furious Inspector Fox." The downside to that was that by the time Sly had cooled down, he'd given everybody splitting headaches that ended up making it impossible from them to perform the recon mission scheduled for that night. 

"Ohhhh... my head hurts..." "Could you keep it down, Murray? You're not the only one with a headache." "Sorry Bentley... now I know how someone feels like after they tick off Inspector Fox... and I wish that I still didn't know that." "Guys, could you keep it down? After all, I've also got a headache!" "Sly, you have nobody but yourself to blame! You're the one that did all the... owww! I shouldn't have done that... now my headache is even worse." "Well, you have nobody to blame for that except yourself, Bentley." "Could you two please stop talking? If my headache gets any worse, I think I'm going to be sick..." Sly and Bentley immedietely shut up; they didn't need to deal with THAT on top of their headaches. 

The next morning, everybody was feeling better. That wasn't too much of a surprise considering what COULD have happened to them due to Murray's excursion to the museum... and that their headaches were gone. After breakfast, Bentley was about to start going over the plan for the recon mission which was now scheduled for that night, and detail the preparations that would need to be made to ensure the success of that mission... when Sly suddenly got an idea. "Hey Murray... you had to purchase an admission ticket at the museum, right?" "Well, yeah... I did have to purchase a ticket. Did I do something wrong by doing that?" "Considering that we're not all in jail cells right now, I don't think so. Second, you bought some food at the museum's cafeteria, right? Do you still have the receipt?" "Yep... never got around to throwing it away. But what does this have to do with...?" "What does this have to do with the mission tonight?" "Nothing... nothing at all to do with tonight's mission, Bentley." "So what on earth are you... ok, don't answer that... you're going to use those to mess with Inspector Fox." To the end of that statement, Bentley and Murray both added mentally: "... for the 100th time." 


	4. Silent Night, Hilarious Night

Inspector Carmelita was... well, saying that she wasn't happy at the moment would have been like saying Clockwerk was "bad." In other words, it was a good thing the room she was in happened to be soundproofed, or the whole museum would have heard her. Yes... she actually could scream THAT LOUD. "I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU TWO COULD BE SO STUPID! YOU WIPED THE PROGRAMMING FOR THE LASERS AROUND THE CAT'S EYE!" Yep, another screw-up, this time by TWO guards. I could continue by telling you the many things she called them, but I think you'll find it far more interesting that the Inspector was abruptly silenced... when her voice gave out. As a result, the Inspector just motioned to the guards to leave the room, and the two guards fled as if a giant snake was after them.

"Trust my voice to give out NOW, when everything else is going wrong! Thanks to those two idiots, I'll have to stay nights as well! Those lasers were programmed to trap anybody who passed through them to get at the Cat's Eye... the perfect surprise for that thief Cooper if he decides to show up! In fact the way things are going..." Carmelita's thoughts stopped right there. That was because the way things were going, it didn't matter if Cooper showed up or not; it would have been another thing that had gone wrong! However, Cooper would show up soon enough... she just wouldn't know about it immedietely.

"Sly, come in! Do you read me? I've got some good news... and some bad news." "What's the good news?" "I believe that the security directly around the Cat's Eye is off-line." "Good news? That's great news!" "Yes it would be... except for the bad news. I've made that deduction based on the fact that Inspector Fox didn't leave the museum like she has the past few days." "Hold on... she's been LEAVING the museum? That doesn't sound like her... the security around the Cat's Eye must have been really tough if she was doing that." "Now remember Sly... this is a RECON mission. Don't steal anything extra, don't go after the Cat's Eye, and DO NOT fool around with Inspector Fox. There may still be security systems that we don't know about..." "I hear ya, pal... but I didn't plan on messing around with Carmelita tonight... still trying to figure out something really special... for April Fool's Day." "You know Sly, you never cease to amaze me... and in this case, I'm not making a compliment."

The communication ended, and Sly was now left with only his own thoughts for company. "I've got to figure out SOMETHING to pull on Inspector Carmelita. What I've got already is good... but not good enough. April Fool's day is only two days away, so I've got to think of something fast. Oh well... maybe I'll come up with something while I'm on this recon mission. After all, thinking on my feet is what I do best." Sly jumped from the roof of the building onto the power lines below, and quickly made his way to a position where he could jump to the roof of the museum. Unbeknownst to him, the roof of the museum had been equipped with highly sensitive motion detectors which would detect his landing on the roof and his movements. However, just as unbeknownst to him (not to mention extremely lucky for him) they had been deactivated by the guard who was in charge of them because the pigeons had been driving the guard crazy.

Getting into the museum was easy; Sly simply cut a hole through one of the glass panels that composed one section of the roof. He slipped the rope he had in his pack out and tied one end of it to a retractable spike (another one of Bentley's ideas), which he then anchored upon the roof. He tossed the other end through the hole he had just made, and climbed down the rope to the floor of the museum. 'That was too easy... way too easy. I better be on my guard." Sly had only taken several steps when alarm horns started blaring. "I'm dead... I have no idea what other security systems are nearby, Carmelita's in the museum, and..." "NOT AGAIN! SOMEBODY SHUT OFF THAT PIECE OF JUNK! THAT'S THE TENTH TIME IT'S GONE OFF SINCE THE MUSEUM CLOSED, AND THE LAST NINE TIMES WE DIDN'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG!" "Huh? That's not Carmelita screaming... could Bentley have been wrong about Carmelita still being here? Well, either way the alarm isn't going to be taken seriously... lucky for me!" A few minutes later, Sly had discovered 6 more instances of security systems that hadn't been active during the day... and of course he didn't get caught by any of them. 

"They call this security? I wouldn't trust these guys to guard a candy store from sugar-crazed kids!" Sly had just seen the guards, and he was not impressed. He'd spotted 5 guards so far, and the first two had been asleep. The third guard had looked like he'd have fainted if Sly had tapped him on the shoulder and said "Boo." "There's three more... and just like guards number 4 and 5, they don't even look like they could catch a cold!" Sly decided to snap some pictures of the guards to leave for the Inspector later on... but he decided that it wouldn't have the effects he really wanted. He still snapped the pictures though... after all his pals could use some comic relief.

Bentley and Murray were at the computer, waiting for the newest recon photos to come in. When they did, they both took one look, and Bentley turned off the audio input for the Binocu-Com at his end. They both then proceeded to fall onto the floor, laughing like crazy. "They call THOSE guards? Sly could run rings around them!" "Yeah... I've heard of "lying down on the job," but that is ridiculous!" "The person who owns the Cat's Eye must be a real cheapskate... he really got what he paid for!" Things went like this for several minutes before they both calmed down. Bentley sat down at the computer again (still chuckling a tiny bit), and turned the audio input back on. "Sly, are you there?" "I sure am... but those guards don't appear to be, do they?" "We'll have time to laugh about the "guards" later, Sly. I still need you to get a few more photos." "Shouldn't be a problem... I haven't seen nose or tail of Inspector Fox so far." "Don't get too cocky, Sly... she's pretty smart." "These guards make Muggshot look smart, so forgive me if I can't take your warning too seriously right now." "Would you prefer that the Inspector's shock pistol end up making you take it seriously? Of course, in that case it'll already be too late..." "OK, OK, I'll be careful." "Why is it that I can"t believe you when you say that?'

Two hours later, Sly was back at the safehouse, and the laughfest commenced. "You say that the alarm was ignored because it was the TENTH TIME it had gone off since the museum closed?" "Yeah, and Carmelita wasn't the one yelling for someone to shut it off." "I'm surprised that the Inspector didn't come to investigate." "Bentley, that's probably because she investigate it every single one of the nine times it went off BEFORE." "Hey Sly... you got any ideas about how we're going to keep the Inspector from catching this time around?" The laughter abruptly cut off, and Sly suddenly looked very serious. "Murray, I'm still working on that." "Sly, you said on the Binocu-Com that you were trying to think up something special for April Fool's Day... that's only two days away! I assume that's when you want to pull the heist." "That's what I had in mind." "Well, you're going to need to come up with something special because that hole you cut in the roof isn't going to go unnoticed... so the Inspector will be waiting for you to try and steal the Cat's Eye." "Yeah, that's true... but there's still one good thing about that hole in the roof. Imagine the look on Carmelita's face when she learns about it!" It only took a few seconds for the three friends to burst into laughter again. 


	5. A Comedy of Errors

The look on Inspector Fox's face as she listened to the guards try to explain the hole in the ceiling AND the reason that they'd shut off the alarm... well, the look on her face was priceless. While that shouldn't have come as any surprise, what was a surprise was that the Inspector was also rendered SPEECHLESS for several moments after the guards finished "explaining" themselves. When she finally was able to say something, it wasn't what anybody would have expected... "Go...just go away, and don't let me see you for the rest of the day." 

The guards saluted, then quickly turned around and scampered down the corridor right behind them... just as another guard turned on the security system for that hallway, not having been told that it had already been turned off by someone else. By the way, that someone else wasn't supposed to have turned it off... that was the job of the guard who had just unknowingly turned the system back on. "Uh, a little help here?" Inspector Fox had a hard time from keeping herself from bursting into a fit of rage right then and there.

An hour later, Inspector Fox was once again watching the TV monitors that were connected to the museum's security cameras and talking angrilyto herself... or so she thought. "I can't believe I'm stuck with these pathetic excuses for guards! I bet that I couldn't find guards any stupider than this anywhere in the world!" Listening from the nearby air vent, Sly smiled and thought to himself: "Carmelita, Carmelita, Carmelita... That's a bet that you'll ALWAYS lose... in my experience, guards are always chosen because of their BRAWN and not their BRAINS." Suddenly Sly realized something... that would be just perfect for messing with the Inspector, leaving behind a note with that line. "Thanks for the inspiration, Inspector...you always know just what to say to charm a man."

Back at the Safehouse, Bentley went over the plan for the heist the next night. "Now the Cat's Eye will still be on display after the museum closes tomorrow night, as I've discovered that the armored car company that was hired to transport the Cat's Eye to and from the museum doesn't operate during the nighttime. Don't ask me why that is, but it's good news for us as if they did operate at nighttime we'd have to pull off the heist while the museum was open... not a viable option under any circumstances. Sly, the point of entry will be that hole you cut in the ceiling..." "Hold on a minute, if the hole hasn't been sealed off, then Carmelita will have placed a ton of guards nearby. I'll be busted the moment I touch the floor." Bentley just smiled and said to Murray: "Murray, bring in the Sly Snoozer." 

A few moments later, Murray brought in what appeared to be a crude life-size replica of Sly, but it wasn't your standard decoy... considering the decoy didn't look like Sly having been squashed flat as a sheet of paper and with actual feet. "What's the deal with the upgraded decoy, Bentley? Those guards aren't exactly the sharpest tools in the shed, so something like that seems a little unneccesary." "Ah, but then I wouldn't have been able to place several of my new "Trigger Snooze Bombs" inside the decoy." A few seconds passed, and then all three thieves burst into laughter. "That's real sneaky, Bentley... "The Murray" approves!" "I get it now... I'll lower the decoy down through the hole in the ceiling first, the guards attack it, and then you trigger the bombs inside. It's going to be a long and sleepy night for those guards!" "Ah, but that's just the beginning... part two of my scheme for dealing with the guards..." 

Bentley pulled out what appeared to be a tape recorder. "What's that, Bentley? It looks like a tape recorder." "Sly, that's because it is a tape recorder... but it's not just a tape recorder. It also doubles as a reusable sleep gas deployment unit. The triggering device for this is connected to a retractable poly-fiber cord with a length of 10 feet. Just say something into the recorder, then throw the device to where you want to activate it from. Once the guards come to investigate, use the triggering device, and it's "lights out" for the guards!" "Thanks Bentley... I can see how this will be useful... and amusing as well!" "Not so fast Sly, you need to be careful... if you're too close to the device when you trigger it, you'll find yourself in a jail cell when you wake up. The sleep gas utilized in this device is highly potent." "I'll try to keep that in mind."

The rest of the plan was nothing out of the ordinary: steal the Cat's Eye, avoid being busted by Inspector Fox and make it back to the Safehouse for a quick getaway. However, things wouldn't be quite that simple... what Bentley didn't realize was that he'd made the sleep gas in the device a bit TOO potent, and when the gas diffused it would spread over a larger area than had been anticipated. Of course, this would end up creating some problems for Sly. Fortunately, it wouldn't end up resulting in him waking up in a jail cell... but it would end up being a VERY close shave. 


	6. Close Shave

As things turned out, the hole in the ceiling hadn't been sealed up, so Sly entered that way... of course after he lowered the Sly Snoozer down first. He grinned as a dozen guards tackled the decoy and then got knocked out as Bentley triggered the surprise hidden inside the decoy. "That worked like a charm, Bentley. That's Cooper Gang 12, Guards 0." "That's not a real smart way to look at things, Sly. The guards need to only score one "point" to win; if you're taken down, that's the end of the "game" and we lose."

"Trust Bentley to take the fun out of this," Sly thought to himself. "Sometimes I wish that Bentley wasn't so... Bentley. Of course other times I wish I could be a little more like Bentley... then maybe I could understand a little more of what he says to me." As Sly descended through the hole in the ceiling, he had no idea that this was just the beginning of what would be a long night. He was also about to find out that Bentley's other device worked a bit too well.

As soon as Sly's feet touched the floor of the museum (the alarm that should have gone off, he quickly made his way to a shadowy corner of the room, and took out the tape recorder/sleep gas deployment device. "Ok, it's showtime... wonder what I should say into this recorder? Hmm... Ah, I've got the perfect line!" Sly switched on the tape recorder and said into it: "Hey, stupid meatheads! I'm over here, come get me!" Sly switched off the tape recorder and said to himself: "That should do the job quite nicely... and I know just where to place this thing."

Sly headed towards one of the hallways that he knew to be protected by a security system exactly like the one that the Inspector had gotten caught in earlier that week. Sly tossed the recorder into the middle of the area protected by the security system (the device was far too lightweight to trigger the security system) and pressed the button marked "Playback" on the side of the triggering device. Within seconds several guards came running in from the other side of the hallway towards the sound of Sly's taunt being played back by the recorder, which promptly triggered the security system.

Bentley's voice came in on the Binocu-Com almost instantly. "Nice job trapping those guards, but you may want to knock them out with the sleep gas before they call in more guards... and the Inspector as well." "As much as I'd like to see the look on Carmelita's face when she sees this, I have to agree with you. Carmelita alone or the guards alone I can handle... but put them together and it's a whole different story." Sly pressed the button marked "Sleep Gas" on the triggering device, and the recorder promptly spewed out a cloud of green sleep gas which knocked out the guards instantly.

"I hope they enjoy their nap because they're going to have one major headache once the Inspector's through with them. I can just imagine the look on... uh, Bentley? Should the sleep gas be coming down the hallway towards me?" "The gas is coming down the hallway towards you? That shouldn't be happening!" A few moments later, Sly raced out of the hallway just moments before the sleep gas started coming out of the hallway into the room with the hole in the ceiling. "Bentley, the next time you make something designed to knock out guards, make sure you test it BEFORE you give it to me!" 

It was fortunate for Sly that the gas began to dissipate almost immediately after it started moving into the room. However in his haste to escape Sly had dropped the triggering device, and he now realized that the insult he had recorded was playing back over and over again. To make things worse, the hallway was amplifying the insult and he knew it would only be a matter of time before somebody else came to investigate. Sly decided to return to the hallway to retrieve the device, but just as we was about to enter the hallway, Inspector Fox appeared and fired a blast from her shock pistol at where Sly's voice was coming from... promptly releasing the rest of the sleep gas stored within the device all at once as it was destroyed. Sly managed to escape from the sleep gas, but in the process he triggered several security systems which (while not capturing him) would make it extremely difficult to escape the museum the same way he had entered it. 

As such, the old plan had to be scrapped as now being too risky, but the new plan that Bentley came up with was risky as well. It involved escaping through the front entrance of the museum, the only option now because the air vents of the museum were suffused with the sleep gas released from the destroyed device. "You have got to be kidding me... There really isn't any other option? I know that a lot of gas was released, but come on... the ventilation system must be big enough that the amount of gas I'd run into at any point would be no problem for me at all." "Unfortunately, the potency of the gas and the amount of the time you'd have to spend in the ventilation system mean that it's not an option. There's a 95 .7 percent chance that you'd end up being knocked out by the sleep gas because of that." "What about the other 4,3 percent?" "That's the chance that you'd suffocate before somebody found you... somebody meaning a member of law enforcement or of museum security." "I'm sorry I asked..." "Don't be... if you hadn't I'm pretty sure you'd have just gone off and tried to escape through the ventilation system anyway because of that 4.3 percent. You and I BOTH know that you like to defy the odds."

One might think that many things would be going through Sly's head as he thought about what would come next. You might believe that he was thinking that this looked like the end of the line, that he would be caught and sent to prison... or maybe that he'd like to wring Bentley's neck for that fiasco of a device. He might even be thinking about giving up on the heist and escaping from the museum. All of these would be logical guesses... but they would also all be WRONG guesses. This is what was going through Sly's head: "Now I REALLY want to pull this heist off. This is exactly the kind of challenge worthy of a Cooper... not to mention that combined with the rest of what I've got, Carmelita will hit the roof, and perhaps not just in the figurative sense this time around." 


End file.
